About Cal NORML

California NORML is a non-profit, membership organization dedicated to reforming California's marijuana laws. We are the only state organization devoted specifically to marijuana reform for consumers. We publish a newsletter, lobby lawmakers, sponsor events, offer legal, educational, and consumer health advice, and sponsor scientific research. We maintain a separate membership and financial base from national NORML. LA NORML is a subchapter of California NORML.

Implement Prop. 215's goal of a system of "safe and affordable distribution" of medical marijuana.

Stop unwarranted use of urine testing for marijuana on the job and for pain patients

Reduce taxes on patients and small farmersand prohibit local taxes and restrictions on donations of medical marijuana

Encourage licensing of small businesses, nonprofits, and agricultural co-ops so as to discourage monopolization and ownership concentration by large-scale, big-money interests

Protect the confidentiality of license applications in order to protect privacy and public safety

Remove cannabis from the state list of controlled substances, and

Decriminalize possession of more than one ounce.

History and Accomplishments

California NORML was originally founded as Amorphia, which organized the 1972 California Marijuana Initiative, Prop. 19. The initiative, which would have repealed laws against adult use, possession and cultivation of marijuana, received 33% of the vote. Amorphia became the California branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in 1974.

California NORML successfully lobbied the state legislature to pass the Moscone Act of 1975, which "decriminalized" marijuana possession from a felony to a misdemeanor, with a maximum $100 fine for 1 ounce or less.